Dawn Patrol

My Dad and I made our second-annual day-before-the-end-of-daylight-savings-time-sunrise pilgrimage on Saturday. The first annual DBTEODSTP was so successful, we decided to do it again. This year we went to Petit Jean State Park and caught the sunrise from Stout’s Point near the gravesite of Petit Jean herself. Several photographers had already assembled by the time we got there. The sunrise wasn’t all that great photographically, but it was pretty neat to hang out up there with my Dad.

I made one of my famous Sasquatch silhouettes.

After the sun had made it up a little way, we headed down to the trail head for the Seven Hollows Trail. I hiked the Seven Hollows Trail back in about 1995 and things in 2009 were a lot different. The whole area has been clear-cut since I was there last. Now a young pine plantation stands where a mixed deciduous forest once stood. The area must not be in the state park, otherwise it wouldn’t be clear-cut, right? I’ve been informed the area burned in 2000 and what’s there is natural regrowth. I had forgotten about the huge fires they had up there. But it looks like the regrowth is all pine trees. I know pines grow faster than hardwoods, but it looks just like a pine plantation. The trail passes through or crosses several little canyons, hence the name Seven Hollows. The trees in the canyons weren’t harvested for the most part so The trees in the hollows didn’t burn and the fall colors blazed in those areas. We’d had plenty of rain this year, including a three-incher earlier in the week, so the creeks were flowing well through all the hollows.

I caught the wily Bigfoot a couple of times as he frolicked in the forest.

Somewhere beyond mile 3 we came to the Grotto. A pretty cool place up one of the seven hollows. A little waterfall drops into a crystalline pool and the creek flows under a huge overhanging rock ledge. Conditions were not good for photographing waterfalls, but it was so shady down in the Grotto at that time of the day, I was able to get a decently slow shutter speed. But because of the clear blue sky straight above, the water came out a weird blue-violet color. I tried to fix it up a little in Photoshop.

The other big attraction on this trail is a sizable stone arch. I’ve been to Arches National Park in Utah and I believe this Petit Jean arch compares favorably with most of those arches in the grandeur arena. I failed to get a decent picture of the thing. It’s hard to work in a stone arch and fall colors all while the sun is straight overhead providing horrible light. Don’t judge me.

Unfortunately, the rocks in the area are marked up with all kinds of graffiti, including this obnoxious example by some jackass who apparently applied this artwork to the base of the arch in 1965. He helpfully painted “natural bridge” and even included an arrow pointing the way.